Observations from Friday’s 97-77 victory over the Wizards at AmericanAirlines Arena:

Michael Beasley put aside the polish for a fierce second-quarter, one-handed putback dunk and then a third-quarter driving dunk past Caron Butler. It is the touch of nasty that had been missing from the Heat rookie forward.

Too many threes for the Heat, especially when they weren’t falling. The Heat opened 1 of 14 from beyond the arc before a third-quarter Dwyane Wade conversion.

Not the best of nights for Mario Chalmers, who struggled early with his shot. Only when Chris Quinn took over at point guard in the third quarter did the Heat begin to seize control with its decisive 20-1 run.

Among those Beasley has drawn comparison to with his style is Washington’s Antawn Jamison. Friday, that was a mostly favorable comparison.

Another active effort from Daequan Cook, whose defense offsets those nights when the shot is off.

Shawn Marion also offered the type of effort that does not show up in the box score. He provided even more than his 12 and 12 might indicate.

It has gotten to the point with Quinn where you’re surprised when the jumper doesn’t drop. Even his misses Friday were halfway down.

Undersized center? Udonis Haslem made Etan Thomas look small Friday. The Wizards replaced Thomas at the start of the second half with Darius Songaila.

Joel Anthony? Mark Blount? It doesn’t seem to matter. Which is why Jamaal Magloire could provide a huge boost upon his return.

Wade opened 4 of 4 from the field and 5 of 6 from the line. Impressive, and efficient.

Yes, Chalmers can dunk. He showed it after picking clean Juan Dixon in the first

Comments (163 Comments)

yeah but Doc, Washington was without Arenas for most of last year and still made the playoffs as the 5 seed. They were in the top three in the NBA as far as covering the point spread. No team did more with less than Washington last year, they came to play every single night of the year. It seems like as soon as Haywood went down all the air got sucked out of that team and they’re just feeling sorry for themselves

Mario Chalmers had 7 assists and 2 steals. I thought he played good defense and what goes un-noticed is that he gets back on defense faster than any guard we’ve had in a very long time which prevents the fast break points. I personally like Spoelstra’s offense of kicking the ball out to Quinn, Cook, Chalmers or Diawara (I did not include Blount). It then opens the lanes up for Wade, Beasley, Marion and Haslem. I also noticed the Heat executed on some quarter ending shots. We haven’t seen those plays work in a very long time. A nice win for the Heat tonight!

I’m officially screaming ‘WTF!!’ at Pat Riley while watching this Lakers-Pistons game… seriously Kwame Brown is doing damage from the center position and even defending the hell outta Gasol. Just what we wanted from the postion
so far he has, 8 points, 9 rebounds, 2 blks… DAMMIT!

Guess I was wrong probably spending a week of my life on this blog telling everyone Shaq wasn’t done and that he played well when he got to Phoenix last year. 29 pts, 13 rebs, 6 assists. Need I say more?

Beasley was great, but honestly, still unexcusable where he is getting the ball. The one time he got it in the low post, beautiful up and under reverse layup. I can count on my hands the number of times he’s got in on the blocks this season, yet when he gets it there, it works.
What’s the problem? Give him the freakin ball down low already Spoelstra. I’m really getting impatient already. Enough is enough. Winning is only hiding this, and its such a no brainer
Posted by: GarrettKall | November 14, 2008 at 10:14 PM
Spoelstra said Friday after the Heat’s 97-77 victory against the Washington Wizards at AmericanAirlines Arena. “But we’ve got this [other] game we’re developing. It’ll come. As the season goes on, you’ll see some more versatility in our offensive attack.”
There. Maybe that will soothes you just a bit.http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/basketball/story/772379.html

nice game to go to huh, doc?
the game program and calendar are very, very nice too! (cheerleader appreciation night)
yes, beasley has mad hops. check out youTube and you’ll be surprised how nasty he can throw it down.
GO HEAT!!!

during halftime, a line of kids were walking along the baseline and the shotclock that is on the back end of the basket support fell DIRECTLY on his head!!!
i wonder if he’s got a lawsuit in his future…

When I was 15 one of my friends was sitting on the lower level. He spotted one of my other friends who has front row seats directly under the basket. When he tried to go from the front row section to the floor, security grabbed a hold of him and took him this “room”. Eventually my friend started flipping out and threatened to sue them for holding him against his will, told them his dad was an attorney, which he was. Then they got all scared and gave him unlimited free hot dogs and ice cream to keep quiet.
It’s alot funnier if you knew the kid.

Shaq with 18 first half points.
Posted by: cruicruise | November 14, 2008 at 11:11 PM
I can’t believe how bad he played down here just a few months ago.. Did he seriously suck on purpose ?! Oh man. What a miserable bastard !
Posted by: cruicruise | November 14, 2008 at 11:14 PM
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YES. Shaq had quit on the heat. He held the team hostage. Thus Miami had no choice but to trade him.
If they didnt he was going to sulk and pout and fake injury.

doctorb and josh and some of these Heat fans are the dirtiest losers in the world. A loser like them questioning four time champion like Shaq. I remember these not so smart idiots saying that shaq was done and they need to go with small ball.

doctorb and josh and some of these punks ran four time champion out of town. With shaq, Heat would still be a contender. Shaq was right to call out Riley for putting that trash team on the court. That was injustice to the fans who expect the best.

From that class of Shaq and Mourning…Shaq is the only big man to play consistently at their age now after all these years. An old big man like shaq needs rest like any other big man. Riley knew that when he signed him…Riley was looking for a championship and he got it. What’s the complain…idiots.

Damn “uptownrides”,
Will you get off the big diesels Dcik already?
Ahaha, Shaq is balling. I am happy for him. nice strategy to rest him though. I wonder, is he and Wade still cool? DoctorB, Talk to your boy Ira find out if there was ever any dirt or tension between the two.

Even while these f**** are sucking on Wade’s dick…and driving the team to the ground last year….there weren’t even five centers in NBA that outplayed Shaq. But, there were many games where Wade got outplayed by the opposing shooting guard. Every shooting guard came in and scored 30 or more

Davis, Wade, and a lot of these chumps turning the ball over all the time and putting up jumpers after jumpers and Shaq getting 7-8 touches a game when he is shooting 60% and blaming on the big guy. That is insane…you idiots.

so less than 2 hours after running yet another team off our homecourt in blowout fashion, someone finds the need to cry about Kwame frickin Brown.
Ignoring the fact that it has taken 10 or so games to come up with a half decent statline for said player.
Also ignoring the fact that Quinn is our only consistent 3 ball shooter.
Now when James Jones is dropping some unconscious 26 foot daggers on some fool in May, we’ll be singing his praises, instead of wanting to hang Kwame

I have the Beasley kid to thank for. He has enlighten me and now I am able to see the light. Everything is peaceful.
Posted by: williams46 | November 15, 2008 at 11:24 AM
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I hope so Williams, I hope so.
I hope you see the light in many fronts…

Too many Threes is right, Ira: 7/24: 29%.
Against a good team (not the Washington Witches) that will lose them game by itself.
I blamed Riley during all last season for ALLOWING too many 3’s. The Heat couldn’t shoot them then, can’t shoot them now.
Spo needs and the Heat coaching staff needs to be blamed for allowing so many 3’s from a team that can’t nail them.
The Heat already lost a couple games because of that trigger-happy propensity from downtown. They will lose more if they keep doing it.

33-53 edge for Miami on rebounds. How bad are these Washington Witches?
The Heat is a small team that will get consistently outrebounded and abused on the boeards, as we’ve already seen most nights, by any decent team.

Very true, chalmers is shooting way, way too much from the perimeter and not facilitating the other players in the floor as he should. Still the D is there, that is something that is way more difficult to teach rather than shot selection.
These guys are only a few games into their NBA career so we have to cut them some slack. Beasley looked great and its pretty crazy to think that the guy is only 19 years old.
I am mostly impressed with the pressure defense. They look very active and making easy baskets off the D which is once great way to win games.

Sorry, Its tough to read some common sense in the boards.
People here are mostly masturbating on who we could get, and they never think, hey we have shaw marion playing for us now.
The team is good as is. Well as good as it could get with two rookies starting. Main problem being is that they don’t know yet how to play as a team.

33-53 rebound disparity! How often do you see this on an NBA game, I wonder.
The W.Witches must have partied hard in South Beatchh upon arrival in Miami. Outrebounding a small team like Miami without a true center and in such grostesque manner speaks volumes about their ineptitude.
That said, Miami came to play last night, played very hard, so Kudos. But The Witches from Washington came here to party.

Yea the bullets played like absolute garbage yesterday. Not a quality win in any way, they mailed the game in the first quarter.
Thats how the bullets play though, they either play great (beat boston 3 times last year) or they play like absolute crap (yesterday).
I just wish, spo would teach these guys how to pass the damm ball. Not just pass the ball around the perimeter, that does nothing.

My Lakers finally lost. It’s a sad and somber day.
Apparently Detroit can play with Iverson au lieu de Billups. When they feel like playing hard, when Rasheed is in the mood, Detroit still can beat any team.

IRA WINDERMAN is embarking on his 24th season covering the Miami Heat for the Sun-Sentinel, witnessing more than 1,900 of the team's games (thus the bags under the eyes and hair loss not truly depicted by the accompanying photo). With the help of antacids (during the lean years) and a sense of humor (during the Riley dictatorship), he has been able to remain a courtside fixture at AmericanAirlines Arena, a veteran 12 years older than coach Erik Spoelstra. Only former trainer Ron Culp had attended more Heat games, but, then again, Winderman has yet to tape his first ankle.